Start Time: 9.30
Towards San Diego from Mt. Palomar on a Smoggy and Hazy Day
I left here and drove through the park to Indio to get a routine chest x-ray. Almost hald of the road between Park Blvd. and the Cottonwood Springs Entrance Station (South Entrance) have been beautifully repaved which will make future bicycle rides on this route much more pleasant.
After spending an hour at the x-ray lab, mostly waiting, I dove on down to Borrego Springs and ate at the decent Mexican dive there and sat at the Christmas Circle Park or awhile enjoying the warm afternoon.
After spending an hour at the x-ray lab, mostly waiting, I dove on down to Borrego Springs and ate at the decent Mexican dive there and sat at the Christmas Circle Park or awhile enjoying the warm afternoon.
I was conflicted about what to do next as I had been in this area recently on Dan's hiking trip. Of the many options I picked driving up into the mountains on San Diego S-22 and heading home from there, perhaps via Anza and Highway 74 back through the Palm Springs area.
S-22 offers a steep 9 mile 3500 foot climb up the east escarpment of the San Ysidro Mountains. I climbed this grade last September with a full load on my touring bike. It took me 5 hours. It is much easier and faster in a car.
I was not sure what I wanted to do when I got to the top. I decided to visit Palomar Mountain then go home on I-15 and I-10. I drove up and not only was the observatory closed for the day (no surprise) the the road to the parking lot was locked so I could not even get close enough the take a photo.
I had asked my GPS app for a route home and from the main road junction on Palomar it directed me down State Park Road and onto Nate Harrison Grade. Nate Harrison did not appear to be much of a road but the first 1/2 mile was not too bad, one lane with some potholes but decent pavement. The second 1/2 mile had big potholes and sections with no pavement. At the end of the first mile the pavement stopped and big ruts and holes appeared. I went down about 1/2 mile and stopped for a nature break. My intuition told me to go back. For once I listened and retreated back to the pavement and went down one of the main roads off the mountain to Highway 76. I noticed I had the GPS set go give bicycle routes which explains the choice of roads. After I got home and looked at the map I felt I could probably have made it down Nate Harrison OK but it looked pretty sketchy when I was there and there are too many stories of people being led to disaster by their GPS system and I did not care to become one of them.
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